When Determination Strikes
by RaeMina
Summary: 10 years after the creation of the spirits, Karol Capel learns that not everyone can move on from the past. Sequel to ToV.


This fic was once meant as a prequel to a sequel, but I have since discontinued the sequel I was making P: I do wish to continue this though! It has some cool scenes I've been excited to write... Anyway, on to the show!

Disclaimer: For this fic, I am using the characters and locations from Namco Bandai's Tales of Vesperia. The rights are their's and their's alone.

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Chapter 1: Furnace of War

"So Bentley just upped and left you?" The leader of Brave Vesperia, Karol Capel, scratched his head and asked concernedly. "Why would he do that?"

"I-I dunno, Capel. But me, 'im," the guild member jutted his thumb at himself and then at the man standing next to him, "and Bentley were on our way back from 'Eliord when all the sudden he just stopped, pushed 'im down, took our pay and booked it right back!"

"Yeah, yeah." The other man rolled up his sleeve to show the knife wound on his forearm. "That Bentley tried to cut my damn arm off!"

Karol stroked his freshly shaved chin in thought. "How weird... Did you notice anything strange about him?"

The man with the accent looked to the other and they both shrugged. "I guess so... We kinda lost track of 'im in 'Eliord, and then when he showed up again, he was all quiet, like he was _angry_."

"Yeah, angry enough to want to cut off my _arm!_"

"Okay, okay! Calm down." Karol let out a breath. "Thanks for telling me. I'll be sure to let the others know, alright? Go and have a drink or something."

"Alright, but if I ever find that Bentley I'mma gonna let him have it!"

"Easy, Chuckie, _easy._"

Karol nodded. "You let us handle Bentley when we find him, okay? He broke the laws, so we gotta handle him." The two men left, arguing to themselves. Karol called after them, "And make sure you get your arm checked out!"

Karol gave a long sigh and ran his gloved hand over his hair, and then scratched it. "Aw geez, another one running off with no warning? This is just getting stupid." He started to make his way back to his office, where both Judith and Raven were waiting for him.

It's been a long time since he had first met them, and Estelle, and Yuri, and Rita too. _Ten years... _He thought, _Feels like nothing's changed, but it's all so different now. _Karol was still the leader of the awesome guild, Brave Vesperia, which was headquartered in Dahngrest. Except now he had a lot of pressure on his shoulders, being ultimately considered one of the Master Guilds, thanks to all they had done. It was a lot of stress on a twenty-two year old kid.

He had certainly grown up, though. Back when he was twelve, he had a much too big bag, a much too big weapon, and much too big shoes to fill. Now it was all a perfect fit. He could wield his Bravior in one hand, and his bag no longer scraped against the grass as he ran, but being a Guild Boss was still unnerving. But that was what friends like his were for, right?

Karol twisted the handle and pushed open his office door. Judith was sitting on the edge of his desk, and Raven sat crosslegged on a chair facing Judith. Repede, the old pooch, was curled up and asleep on a cushion in the corner. When Karol entered, Judith smiled as she always did and Raven turned and made a face.

"Ah, welcome back Karol," Judith said pleasantly. "Raven and I were just having a nice little chat."

"Let me guess," the Boss smiled wryly. "You got shot down again, right Raven?"

"Oh, _Karol,_" The old man spoke dramatically, dropping his head. "Please, tell Judith ta stop all this bullyin'. I only have so much love left in these old bones!" While Raven was no spring chicken, it was true that he was the oldest looking forty five year old one could ever meet. Repede seemed to snort in his sleep.

"Yeah well, you'd better bottle it up and save it, 'cause we don't have time for that." Karol took a breath. "Another one has run off."

"Again?" Judith stood up, arms crossed and concerned. "This is happening far too often than is comfortable."

"Yeah I know. That makes about twenty from just Brave Vesperia alone."

"Countless more from the other guilds, too." Raven recovered quickly from his tragedy. "Seems some siren is tempting them all off the deep end."

Karol moved and sat behind his desk, shuffling through paperwork and shaking his head. "I just don't get it..." He muttered. This ordeal had been going on for almost a year now, but it had definitely increased in activity in the past few months. It wasn't good publicity for guild members to just abandon their jobs and not to mention plain off disappearing. While most of them were grunts that were running off, that was a lot of people who would need to face punishment. If they were ever found.

Karol didn't look up from his shuffling. "Has anyone heard if Yuri has gotten back yet?"

"Nope, still off talking with the Commandant probably." Raven fanned himself with his hand. "It takes a while ta head to the capitol and back, y'know."

The boss growled, pushing papers madly about. Judith held out the papers he had been looking for in her hand. Karol took it and muttered a thank you, blinking thoughtlessly at the paper.

"Karol," Judith sat on the edge of the desk and put her hand on his, which made Karol's skin prickle. "You should really take a break. This is a lot to deal with and you're stressed enough as it is. What you need is rest."

"Oh now Judy, don't spoil the boy," A familiar and sarcastic voice sounded as the door opened. "He has a big guild to run. He's got to stay on top."

Karol looked up excitedly. "Yuri! You're back!" He couldn't help but grin.

Yuri smiled and waved tiredly. "Sure am." He entered and plopped down in the middle of a two seater couch, letting his head fall back. A four year old dog trotted in after him, sniffing about and going to greet his father, who woke up for the occasion.

"Well you sure look chipper. Tired from your little adventure?" Raven teased, stroking his chin thoughtfully. Yuri grunted. The dog, Rampart, jumped onto the couch next to Yuri and rested his head on his lap. His tail wagged as Yuri scratched the dog's head.

Judith asked, "So what did Flynn have to say?"

"He said that they've been going through the same thing we are." Yuri lifted his head and leaned forward, causing Rampart to change position. "Some from his own brigade, even. Seems even the great Imperial Knights aren't immune to this, but neither is New Aspio."

Karol's eyebrows knit together. "W-what? You mean mages are running off too?" New Aspio was a city that sprang up next to the Shaikos Ruins after the Blastia Purge, an event that the occupants of the room had orchestrated personally. The town got it's name from the mages, who were too busy researching the newly emerged Spirit magic to get too creative.

Yuri nodded. "More towns have been raided too. When Flynn showed up, he told me that Halure just got attacked."

Karol's eyes widened. "Halure? Then is Estelle alright?"

"Yeah, she's fine," Yuri waved his hand dismissively. "I checked. She was just a little shaken from the event and tired from running around and healing everybody. But nobody knows who did it, as _usual._"

A collective sigh echoed in the room. Repede yawned.

"Just what is going on around here?" Raven mumbled, reading everyone's thoughts.

The door burst open. "'Ey, Boss!" A man leaned halfway through the door way, panting. "We need ya! There's some loon raidin' the town out there!"

Everyone shared glances and shot up from their seats. They all grabbed their weapons and hustled out of the building. They came to the to the main square of Dahngrest in time to see a man being flung through the air infront of their faces and skidding to a halt across the cobblestone. What they saw was surprising.

A lone man, tall and skinny, stood proudly in the opening to the western bridge. All around armed men were injured, laying limp on the floor or down on their knees in exhaustion. They all seemed to be in a radius around the skinny man, who stood without a scratch on him.

Karol gaped. "What in the- Hey!" A shadow of black slipped past him, and Yuri ran forward, sword drawn, Rampart at his heels. "Come on!" He called to Judith, as they both ran to the man on the bridge. Raven stayed where he was, clicked open his transform bow and fired an arrow into the sky.

A multitude of crimson arrows rained down on the man, but they all stopped dead a full foot from the man's head and bounced uselessly off the side of the bridge. Yuri had missed this event, or he had too little time to react, as he hit an tremendous force of energy. A thousand watts of energy pounded through his body, and he was knocked back quite a distance, skidding to a stop on the cobble stone. Rampart met a similar fate.

"Yuri!" Karol and Judith stopped by where the swordsman had landed, who already stood up but doubled over. "What happened?"

"Damn, I don't know." Yuri hissed in annoyance. "Felt like I ran head first into a brick wall."

Suddenly, the man on the bridge laughed loudly, a sound that seemed to Karol like a poor attempt at an evil laugh. "How careless of all of you! Down for the count all because of you follow _them_ like lambs to the slaughter!"

"What is it you want?" Judith called out as Raven ran up to meet the others.

"Do you know why they've run?" The man was shaking slightly in a rush of adrenaline. "Why some of your very own have left you? It's 'cause you abandoned the rest of us, letting our families die!"

"What? You're not even making any sense!" Karol tried to get closer to the man, hopefully to get him to stop, but the man whipped out from his pocket a small device.

"No sense, huh? Then what about this?" The man held the device over head. "If our demands aren't met, you can say good bye to your pathetic town! Charges have been placed all around the town. With the press of a button, Dahngrest will be wiped off the map!"

Suddenly a blast sounded through the area. Everyone ducked and covered their heads as bricks and dust spewed out from a nearby building. The tall building fell away from the people and into the channel of water below.

"The hell? You could have killed us!" Karol realized a little too late how stupid those words were after they fell from his mouth, and the man only laughed again.

"Could have, huh? Oh that would be terrible, wouldn't it? Maybe if you follow our demands, you all wouldn't have to go through such fate. And what we want is simple: The leaders of the Master Guilds will come _alone_to the stretch of beach west of Heliord in one week. There they will be taken from there to meet with out leader." The man smirked smugly. "I'm sure they'd be so happy to meet you."

Karol clenched his fists tightly. He had no idea what to do next, and he hated that. He sure didn't want to just give in to the man's demands, but thinking of Dahngrest engulfed in flames made his stomach knot and his fists clench tighter. The man didn't even really explain what he and his group really wanted, so how Karol supposed to know that this wasn't going to be some sort of trap?

"Of course..." The man's voice became very dangerous, crazy. "There are plenty of people that would love to see you all dead, especially me." He gripped the device tighter, his laughing growing louder and louder. He held it high about his head. Karol ran forward.

A bright light emanated from the man, but it was obviously not what he expected. The lights were formed up a thousand individual multicolored lights. "W-what's this? Get off!" He flailed his arms, frantically brushing at himself losing control. The once invisible shield seemed to bubble in the air before shattering into a shower of glitter.

Karol saw this as his chance. Bravior gripped tightly in his hands he ran forward, swinging the sword, narrowly missing the man's leg as he continued to stumble towards the side of the bridge. With another mighty swing, the man was knocked off the side of the bridge and the device flew into the air and landed safely by Karol's heel.

The man's frantic yell was soon gargled as he plummeted head first into the water, and Karol let go of the breath he had no idea he was holding. He reached down and picked up the device, which didn't look like it was going to be activating anytime soon. At least he hoped.

"That was close." But Karol had spoken far too soon.

A large pulse of waves ran through the river's surface, and the hairs on the back of Karol's neck stood up. Light was again gathering where that man might have been, growing in intensity each moment.

"_Get back!_" Karol yelled and retreated from the bridge. No sooner did he start running, a geyser of water and light shot upwards, vaporizing the section of the bridge Karol just was. He had leaped and tumbled into safety just in time. The people ducked, yelled, and covered their heads again. The airborne water showered down on them, but it was gone in an instant.

"Karol!" Yuri, Judith, and Raven ran to Guild Boss, who lie on his back panting and soaked.

"You alright, son?" Raven helped Karol stand up.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. _Whew!_" Karol doubled over, trying to catch his breath again. "What do you think that light was?"

"I'm not sure, but I believe the lights were small spirits." Judith said, her arms crossed and her hand on her cheek. "And there must have been a lot of them since they aren't usually visible to the naked eye."

Battle cries and the growlings of monsters could be heard from the other side of town. "Uh oh, looks like that explosion attracted monsters." Yuri flexed his wrists, ready for a fight. "Come on, let's go lend a hand." He, Judith, and Rampart ran off to defend the town. Raven and Karol remained where they were.

"So, those were spirits, huh?" Karol asked. "It's good that they showed up when they did then." From the Blastia Purge years ago, the thousands upon thousands of elemental spirits were born. Many were small and often went unnoticed in the world, not having as much power as the Grand Elementals, Efreet, Undine, Slyph and Gnome.

Raven nodded. "Yeah, but what I wanna know is who that guy was working for. It takes guts, not to mention stupidity to take on a city full of guilds with just one man."

"He might have been disposable to them, I guess... What do you think, Raven? His demands were for the Master Guilds to meet up on some beach to some location. Do you think it's just some hoax?"

"With the heat he's packin'? Not a chance. We'll have to talk to Harry about it, though." Raven closed his eyes and stroked his chin as he always did, thinking. "I have that sinkin' feeling that things are gonna get big."

"Yeah..." Karol said softly. "Big like a war."

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Done! Hope you liked it =D I really enjoy writing this in Karol's head, since he's basically a big man now, all in charge of a guild~ ^^

-RaeMina


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